LEGO Games Wiki:Manual of Style
This Manual of Style outlines a standard of clean, consistent formatting for articles on this wiki. The formatting described here is a guideline and can be overridden where circumstances warrant it. These guidelines will never be unerringly perfect for every situation. However, please try your best to keep to the advice outlined in this article so others may use your edits as an example when creating and editing their own articles. These guidelines are a summary of the most important guidelines for this wiki, but a more expansive set of style guidelines can be found on Wikipedia at Manual of Style. Article layout LEGO Games Wikia uses page skeletons to have consistant layouts. If creating a new character page, just subst and then save and finish the article. Table of contents A table of contents will automatically appear in articles with a minimum of four headings (unless forced by the below options). By default this will be left-aligned above the first section heading. * To the force a TOC position (left-aligned): __TOC__ * To completely remove the TOC from a page: The table of contents can be right-aligned - but only if it is very long (over 15 entries) and an information box is not occupying the top-right corner of the article (rare exceptions exist). * Right-aligned TOC that floats next to text: Section headings Use the (two equal signs) style markup for main headings, equivalent to . Do not use a single =. This is because a single = creates an heading which is already used by the page header and would be bad coding. Also, do not use wikilinks in subject headings. When edited, these sections become confusing in the edit history because of the link code. Consider instead putting the word in the first or second sentence of the section and linking it there. Capitalize the first letter only of the first word and of any proper nouns in a heading and leave all of the other letters in lowercase. Use "Founding and history", not "Founding and History". Note that this is different from most section title rules you'll encounter elsewhere. Avoid special characters in headings, such as an ampersand (&), a plus sign (+), curly braces ({}), or square braces ([]). In place of the ampersand, use the word "and" unless the ampersand is part of a formal name. Always keep headings short and simple. Headings are guidelines to your page's structure and should inform the reader rather than confuse. To keep it short, avoid unnecessary words or redundancy in headings, i.e. avoid a, an, and the, pronouns, repeating the article title, and so on. Also, try to avoid giving identical titles to different sections. Images Images make an article memorable and pretty. They can speak where words fail. At the same time, misplaced or untidy images can detract from an article. When choosing images, keep in mind placement, size, and the appropriateness of the image to the section. Let images flow with the text instead of break it up. Large images such as screenshots should use the "thumb" (example: ) option which displays large images as thumbnails. Images should generally be right aligned to enhance readability by allowing a smooth flow of text down the left margin - the "thumb" option does this by default. If an infobox is not being used in an article, a right aligned picture in the lead section is encouraged. For more information, see . Galleries When an article has many images, or can be improved by having more, and having inline images be detract from the readbility of an articles, the use of a section is encouraged. Mister Fantastic Miiverse.png|Reed Invisible Woman Miiverse.png|Sue Human Torch Miiverse.png|Johnny Thing Miiverse.png|Ben Tables Tables should use a "class" design when possible, and should include as little 'fancy' formatting as possible. Tables can also be made sortable by adding a "sortable" class. For long tables, it is recommended to create an "alt" class to alternate row colours to enhance readability. The below examples use "toccolours" as a class, but this is only for the purposes of demonstration, and isn't generally recommended. With row headings, table caption, sortable | |} Without row headings, with alt rows | |} Navigation boxes Navigation boxes can use or be based off . Generally they should be placed at the end of an article, above the categories. Expand with more details and examples. Article message boxes Add me! You may want to look at Wikipedia:Article message boxes. See also, references, external links, and navigational tables The last sections, if they exist, should always be "See also", followed by "References", followed by "External links". In the case of "See also", use bullets to list the internal links. Under the references section should be placed . Finally, in the external links should be all external links. Categories Categories should be added to the end of an article - a full list can be found on . They take the form Category:Categoryname. All articles should be accessible starting from Category:Browse, via subcategories. However, no articles should go directly to Browse except the main page. Disambiguation A disambiguation line is sometimes put at the beginning of an article to link to another article with the same or similar title. The line should be italicized and indented once. Most usually contain the phrase, "Were you looking for X?" For example: : Were you looking for "The Battle of Terrafield", an official novel? The template can also be used for this purpose. Grammar Grammar is a writer's toolbox. You can't build good sentences without knowing how to use your tools. Since a wiki article must be as clear as possible for all the people reading it, editors must keep close to correct grammar standards to ensure clear communication. Capitalization Titles such as lord or king start with a capital letter when used as a title (followed by a name): "King Théoden", not "king Théoden". When used generically, they should be in lower case: "Voldemort is a powerful lord." The correct formal name of an office is treated as a proper noun. Hence: "Aragorn is the current King of Stormwind." Classes should only be capitalized when used as a proper noun, i.e. as someone's name. ("Warlock, go be evil" versus "That warlock is quite evil.") Game link templates LEGO Games Wiki uses link templates for each game. It's quicker to use than to type out LEGO Star Wars: The Video Game Writing We now come to the meat of an article: the words themselves. When you're editing wikis, you're both academic and artist. You have to be accurate, but you also have to be interesting. Neither one can dominate; you have to skillfully balance both. Keep your writing concise. Don't use two words where one will do. Keeping your writing simple will make it easy to understand and easy to expand on. Use complete sentences whenever possible. When you write, use grammar as a toolbox: know the rules, but only break them on purpose. Check your spelling and grammar. Do not use 'u' in place of 'you' or '2' in place of 'to'. Write the way you would for a class paper or a newspaper article. Keep all of the topics you cover within the scope of the article. What that means is, you don't need to give a detailed history of hogwarts on the page about Professor Dumbledore. Consider the article's title as your point of origin and write from that perspective. Make use of the wiki's ability to link to more detailed articles or external sources for more information. Write from an impersonal perspective.' Do not use "I." For example, do not write, "Hellscream was a fervent member of the Horde. He served both the Old and New Horde, As far as I know." Avoid drawing attention to the author (yourself) as much as possible. In walkthrough sections, you can still say "you" to refer to the player. Be bold. If you know something is wrong, correct it. If you think you could word something better, write it. If an article has a glaring deficiency, fill it. Even if your first attempt isn't golden, you can fix it later or someone else will come along and fix it for you. Don't be afraid to screw up. Conclusion Every article can be improved (even this one). Following these guidelines will not ensure a perfect article the first time, but it will give the article a stronger skeleton. It's ultimately your job as an editor to put meat on it.